Course Description:
Being a successful doctoral supervisor involves ‘being many things’. It involves possessing research capabilities, being knowledgeable in specific disciplines, understanding interpersonal relationships, exercising mentoring/guidance skills and having appropriate knowledge of their own institutional regulatory systems for doctoral study. In addition to these attributes supervisors need to understand the nature of how to promote the doctorate with their candidates. At the same time, doctoral candidates need to know what the doctorate entails – even before they start with the doctoral journey and while they are studying for the degree. What are the elements and requirements of a study at the highest university level? How is synergy promoted and created within a doctoral study and how is it audited and examined?
Questions such as these form part of a larger debate on what it means to ‘be doctorate’. The notion of doctorateness has gained traction over the past two decades, highlighting both the changed/changing nature of doctoral knowledge work, and the pedagogical work that supports knowledge production at the doctoral level. Most notably the work of Trafford and Leshem (2012), Strengthening Postgraduate Supervision (2016), the work of Catherine Manathunga (2017) and others highlight the multiplicity and dynamic nature of the concept, and why understanding what knowledge creation at the doctoral level means is essential to successfully completing a doctorate.
In line with this agenda, there are a growing number of studies that suggest frameworks of supervisory practice, building constructive student-supervisor relationships and institutional support structures, and developing doctoral capacity around aspects of project design, methodology, writing skills, publication and career choices are all interrelated elements in the context of doctoral education. In addition, we see an increase in initiatives aimed at promoting doctoral wellbeing, effectiveness and quality in supervision, and/or doctoral throughput and success. The work of Lee and Green (1995) paved the way using the notion of pedagogy as a way to understand doctoral education as an embedded system of relationships in which doctoral supervision and learning links the creative knowledge process and the learning context.
Research done on doctoral pedagogy and supervision by the Centre for Higher and Adult Education at Stellenbosch University, together with the experience and contributions of the facilitators, will assist participants in gaining new insights into and developing relevant skills from tools and guidelines to both guide and undertake doctoral work. The facilitators have successfully conducted short courses and workshops for doctoral supervisors and candidates for over a decade and the current event promises to be a worthwhile and informative experience for both doctoral supervisors and doctoral candidates.
The ideal would be for supervisors and their candidate(s) to jointly attend this short course, however this might not always be possible.
Target Group:
Promoters / supervisors of doctoral studies at all South African higher education institutions as well as doctoral students across all fields/disciplines.
Please contact Ms Rhoda Van Rensburg at vanrensburgrhoda@sun.ac.za for more information on each short course, as well as registrations or simply click on the registration button above.